Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	doctrine_n	worship_n	3,910	5	7.2192	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59884	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Richard Meggot D.D. and late Dean of Winchester, Decemb. 10th, 1692 at Twickenham by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1693 (1693)	Wing S3355; ESTC R11116	9,300	33

labour and diligence in this it would be a delightful work were our Labours always blessed with success could we rescue the Souls of Men from the Dominion of their Lusts and from the Power of the Devil could we turn them from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God but we must often expect to labour all might and catch nothing we must contend with the Lusts and Vices of Men must bear their Folly their Frowardness their Reproaches and Censures and injuries be thought Troublesome Pragmatical and Busie-bodies for our charitable Exhortations and Reproofs and watchfulness over their Souls And when the Church is at ease and rest from without how often is it rent and torn in Pieces with Schisms and Heresies as St. Paul fore-warned Timothy the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables 3 4. ver and what infinite Labours and Difficulties does this create to the Ministers of the Gospel to heal the Breaches of the Church to confute Heresies Atheism Infidelity and to be scorned and persecuted for it with a bitter Rage and Zeal That St. Paul might well add But watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist make full proof of thy ministry 5 verse We ought not indeed to be discouraged by such difficulties as these because our Reward will be great in Heaven but it will be a happy Day when Our warfare shall be accomplished when we shall cease from our labours and our works shall follow us when we can say with St. Paul I have fought a good fight I finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2. Thus to die is their gain Nevertheless it is more needful for the Church that they should abide in the flesh And a great loss it is to the Church when they die I need not use many words about this for the case is plain The Death of every good Man who is very useful to the World in what way soever he be useful is a very great loss for Death puts an end to his doing any more good in this World but as to take care of the Souls of Men is to do the greatest good to Mankind because the Happiness of our Souls is of the greatest concernment to us so to lose a faithful and a prudent Guide must be the greatest loss We indeed of this Church have great reason to bless God that he has sent forth so many able and painful Labourers into his Harvest that it is not the loss of every good Man that can much affect us at ordinary times For there are great numbers of wise and good Men to perpetuate a Succession of able and faithful Guides but a St. Paul is at any time and in any Age of the Church a great loss Nay Men who are much Inferiour to St. Paul but yet fitted with peculiar Abilities to serve the Church at some certain Seasons and in some difficult Circumstances are a very sensible loss at such a time when their service is most needful A Man of Council and Conduct who is fit to sit at the Helm and knows how to steer in a Storm is a great loss in times of Difficulty and Trouble when the Church is assaulted on all hands and it is hard to avoid one Mischief or Inconvenience without running into another A Man of Goodness and Temper who knows how to govern his own Passions and how to soften and manage the Passions of other Men is a very sensible loss when the Passions of Men are broke loose and disturb the Peace of the Church and even threaten the ruine of it A Man of Learning and sound Judgment who can distinguish between Truth and Errour in all its most artificial and flattering Disguises is a great loss when old Errours are revived and new ones broached when we must dispute over again the very Being of a God the truth of the Scriptures and Articles of the Christian Faith A Man of great Diligence and Industry Courage and Resolution to defend the Truth to oppose Heresies and Schisms to preserve the Unity of the Church and the Integrity of the Christian Faith is a very great loss when the Church is encompassed and assaulted with busie and restless Enemies A Man of an exemplary Life and untainted Vertue who shines like a Light in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation who maintains the declining Honour and Repuration of Religion and true Vertue is a mighty loss in a profligate Age when men are grown such Strangers to the sincere Practice of Vertue and Religion that they begin to think there is no such thing But I can go on no farther the very mentioning of these things brings the fresh Idea of our deceased Brother to mind and the afflicting Sense of that great loss which we suffer by his Death It becomes us to Reverence and Adore the Wisdom of the divine Providence even when we cannot understand the Reasons of it We are certain God is never wanting in his Care of his Church and yet had we been made Judges of this Case we should have thought it a very ill time to have spared him He was abundantly furnished with all good Learning both for Use and Ornament he was an accomplished Scholar and a well studied Divine he knew Books and read them and judged of them He was a Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven who like a Housholder could bring forth out of his treasure things New and Old 13 Matth. 52. He had carefully perus'd the ancient Philosophers Orators and Poets to discover what Nature taught which gave him a truer Knowledge and greater Value for the Excellency and Perfection of the Gospel-Revelation He had true and clear Notions of Religion and he was Master of them he knew why he believed any thing and was neither prejudiced nor imposed on by popular Opinions he was a hearty and zealously Assertor of the Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline of the Church of England he saw nothing material which could be changed for the better which made him jealous of Innovations as not knowing where they would end He was a Friend to all sincere Christians pittied their Mistakes and bore with their Frowardness but did not think that Christian Charity required him to sacrifice Truth or good Order and Government to the pretences of Peace and Unity He was for several Years a very diligent and constant Preacher to a numerous Auditory till his own Diocesan who knew his Worth and the weakness of his Constitution and was desirous to preserve him for the Service of the Church provided this place where we now are for his Ease and Health and Retirement where he lived many Years a constant Preacher though his Labours were then divided

we shall dwell with Christ adore his Love behold his Glory and be transformed our selves into the likeness and image of his Glory We have but obscure imperfect Conceptions of these things now Heaven will out-do our highest Expectations as much as the most perfect state of Happiness in this World always falls short of what we expected and this is the case of all good Men it is a mighty happy Change they make when they remove from Earth to Heaven But there are different Degrees of Glory in the next World proportioned not only to our different attainments in Vertue but to those different Trusts and Services which we have been employed in and have faithfully discharged here We read of the Reward of a Prophet that he who gives a Cup of cold Water to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall have a Prophets Reward which must signifie some peculiar Reward that shall be bestowed on Prophets We know so little of the other World that we cannot conceive what these different Rewards shall be The Prophet Daniel represents it by an external Glory 12 Dan. 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever But our Saviour represents this by a different degree of Rule and Empire 12 Luke 42. 43 44. And the Lord said who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their meat in due season This is the honourable Character of Gospel Ministers in this World that they are Rulers in God's houshold to instruct and feed them with the Word of Life and their Reward is proportioned to their Work Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath What this Rule signifies in the other World is a Mystery to us especially since we have fancied the other World to be only a State of Contemplation not of Action where we shall have nothing to do but to see God and to love and to praise him but no service to do for him but we know there are different orders of Angels who are imployed in great Trusts and Offices Arch-Angels Angels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers which are names of Rule and Government though we know not what their Power and Authority is nor how they Govern in like manner our Saviour promises his Apostles verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel 19 Matth. 28. The like we may see in the Parable of the Pounds and Talents He who had gained ten Pounds had Rule over ten Cities and he who gained five Pounds had Rule over five Cities for these Servants to whom the Lord gave these Pounds and Talents to improve plainly signifie his Stewards and the Ministers of his spiritual Kingdom for no other Persons have in so peculiar a manner this honourable Character of the Servants of Christ throughout the Gospel And if there be Order and Government among the Angels themselves Why should we think that there is nothing like this among glorified Saints if Angels are the Ministers of God there is no reason to think that Heaven is a State of meer Rest and Contemplation especially when Happiness consists in Action And if Christ have any Ministers of his spiritual Kingdom in the next World it is most reasonable to think that those shall have the greatest Authority and be employed in the noblest Services who have been his faithful Stewards and Ministers in this World For the Church on Earth and in Heaven is the same Church though their State be very different and therefore they do not lose their relation to Christ nor their station in his Church by removing to Heaven It is a sacerdotal Kingdom our High Priest is King and therefore a Priest of Jesus how mean soever this be thought now will be one of the highest Characters in Heaven What the Happiness of this is we cannot tell but we know that there are no empty Titles in Heaven but every degree of Dignity there signifies a peculiar degree of Happiness and what an advantageous exchange then is it for a faithful Minister of Jesus to be removed from Earth to Heaven For let us consider what the State of Christ's Ministers is in this World what it was in St. Paul ' s days he tells us 2 Cor. 6. 4 10. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in Stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fasting by pureness by knowledge by long suffering by kindnesses by the Holy Ghost by love unfeigned by the word of truth by the power of God by the Armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things Which describes a most laborious Life a Scene of Wants of Difficulties of Sufferings a perpetual exercise of passive Vertues to reconcile the most appearing Contradictions to live and struggle and contend in this World and to fetch their Comforts and Supports from Heaven This indeed is not always the State of the Christian Church nor of the Ministers of it but yet in the greatest external Prosperity of the Church the Ministers of Religion who discharged their Trust with Diligence and Faithfulness find many difficulties to encounter The care of Mens Souls is itself a mighty Trust and Who is sufficient for these things consider but the Charge St. Paul gives to Timothy 1 Epist. 4. 11 c. Let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie by laying on of the hands of the Presbytery Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all take heed to thy self and to thy doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and then that hear thee Here is work enough to employ the whole Man and our utmost care and diligence and prudence work for the Study for the Closet for the Pulpit as the same Apostle exhorts and charges Timothy to preach the word to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine 2 Tim 4. 2. But yet though there be